On 14 July 2025, the European Research Council (ERC) announced the first group of researchers to be awarded ERC Proof of Concept Grants in 2025. In this initial round of the 2025 competition, 150 projects will receive €22.5 million in funding. Each grant is worth €150,000 and is designed to help ERC grantees to bridge the gap between the results of their pioneering research and the early phases of its commercialisation or societal application.
The new grantees’ work will cover a wide range of subjects. Examples include: using AI to better predict conflict escalation and risk; reducing the environmental footprint of paracetamol production; developing a tool to detect distortions in electricity markets caused by dominant energy firms; and creating a portable device to capture and detect PFAS (“forever” chemicals) in water — among many others.
https://erc.europa.eu/system/files/2025-07/erc-2025-poc-1-results-list.pdf